Nemera
by Jacovi
Summary: Story is not finished yet. Nemera is running away with her German Shepherd, Arizona. She couldn't take her family any longer. Only a half hour after she flees does she encounter a gang of men, drunk and grinning foolishly, a gun in one of their hands.
1. Chapter 1

The silent forest swayed in the gentle breeze. The girl's blonde hair blew as the flowers danced to the tree's whistling. A single bird landed on the cool, crisp grass and looked at her with beady eyes. The stars shone like millions of diamonds on a lovely ebony surface. She walked over a fallen log, her faithful companion at her side. The German shepherd growled a warning at the bird, staring at it until it backed away into the shadows. The girl reached down slightly and touched the tip of the dog's ear. He looked up with intent gold eyes and blinked slowly, tilting his head to one side.

She shouldn't have been so anxious. The police couldn't be after her at this hour. No one could. Her parents probably didn't even know that she was gone. And who would know where to start looking? Which forest was she in? Was she in a forest? Besides, who would be looking for her in a park at one o'clock in the morning?

She was running away. She couldn't take it any longer. She had warned her family time and time again and they'd finally pushed her until she broke. It was easy to get away from her house with her dog. She'd filled her school backpack with necessities such as food, clothing, and a pretty big wad of cash, and spirited away around twelve thirty, when everyone was still asleep. And she wasn't going to stop. She wasn't going to turn back. Never. Never . . .

Nemera was the second born of four children, all of which were girls. Her whole life she'd desperately wanted and older brother, someone who wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty, someone who wasn't afraid to camp with her or play baseball or football. But instead she was trapped in a house with three girls that all complained about her wearing T-shirts to school or not wearing enough makeup. Nemera was the tomboy out of them. But that wasn't the reason that she had run away.

Nemera's parents were always on her, always complaining about what she did. Nothing she did was ever good enough for them and they'd expected her to be able to read their minds and accomplish what they wanted her to do without them having to tell her. But how was she supposed to know what they wanted without them telling her? She wasn't a physic! If she didn't do exactly what they wanted her to do, then of course they'd yell at her and hit her. But still, that was only one reason that she fled.

Her sisters all had wanted nothing to do with her and would do their best to get her in trouble, which was easy enough. She hadn't had one night of peace in a very, very long time.

Her grades were slipping because she couldn't get her mind off what was happening at her home.

Her family all wanted to get rid of her dog, her companion, her best friend. She'd only had Arizona for one year, but she felt as if she'd known him her whole life.

She had no friends at school. None. She guessed that it might be because she was the new kid at the school and they all hung out with their lifelong childhood friends. Maybe they didn't want any new ones?

The only one that had any faith in her was Arizona.

She knew how to survive on her own and Arizona knew how to protect her. She knew how to protect herself. They could do this.

And so, Nemera decided that she'd take her German shepherd Arizona and leave. She decided to go where her parents would never look for her. Her mother had planned a trip to Italy a long while ago, but decided against it about a week before her scheduled flight. She'd kept the tickets, and lucky for Nemera, they were still valid. She was certain that her mom wouldn't notice the absence of Nemera's ticket. She had to fish it out of the garbage can anyway.

She'd be able to make it to the airport by sunup, board the plane with Arizona, and be off to Venice, Italy. She had never been there before but she was sure that she could find somewhere to stay there, whether it was an abandoned building or an alley on the outskirts of town. She tried not to think much about what she would do once she got there for fear that she wouldn't go through with it. What if she couldn't summon the courage to get on the plane? This was her only chance to escape and she wasn't going to go back. She couldn't. Not now.

Arizona waved his tail slightly and looked up at her again; his expression appeared to be asking her a question. Nemera shrugged and patted his head gently.

"Of course I know where the airport is," she murmured, "It's in _that_ direction." She gestured towards the northwest. "Just trust me." Arizona bent his head to the ground and scented the ground. His head shot up suddenly, ears forward and alert. His eyes searched quizzically in the darkness, searching for something. Nemera stopped abruptly and took a step backwards, her foot bumping into a glass bottle. Some litterbug must have thrown it there, she assumed. "_What?"_ she hissed under her breath. Arizona's eyes flared dangerously and he bared his teeth, snapping at the air in front of him, pearly incisors gleaming in the moonlight. An eerie chuckle made her jump a little, heart racing.

"Down, puppy," the voice said. Arizona growled, taking a step forward and waving the tip of his tail. A young man walked out of the shadows, black hair matted on his forehead. "Down, boy," he said again. Two other men followed him, one of them holding an empty glass bottle. Nemera narrowed her eyes. _They're drunk, _she realized. Arizona barked a warning and the man chuckled again.

"Shut up, you stupid animal," one of the men said, reaching into his jacket. "You don't want any trouble, do you?" Nemera placed a hand on her dog's flank and she felt him bristle. He sensed something that she didn't. Looking back at the man, she saw that he had something in his jacket and took another step back.

"Why are you backing away?" one of the other men asked, his question directed at her. Nemera shrugged, not trusting her tongue. "Why don't you come back here?" Her heart beat faster.

"Arizona?" she mumbled, still backing away. Arizona continued to snarl as the man, his hand coming out of his jacket now, held something towards them. A small shiny object that's shape was unmistakable. "Run," she growled to Arizona and took off in the direction of the airport. The German shepherd kept even stride with her, nudging her to go faster as they heard the first bullets pierce through the air. Arizona pushed her from side to side, trying to give the strange men a difficult target to shoot at.

Nemera wasn't the fastest runner, but she wasn't the slowest either. If pushed, she could outrun most of the people in her grade. Now, she was being pushed. Not just by a huge dog but by the simple fact that if she stopped she could be killed, if not severely injured.

"Hey, come back here, girl!" the men called, and Nemera heard another round of gunshots. She could hear the men's sinister laughter from behind her and she knew that they were pursuing her. _Why me?_ she thought, heart racing faster.

Arizona narrowed his eyes and felt a low growl rising in his throat. He didn't know what these people wanted, nor did he exactly care. He just wanted them to stop chasing _his _girl. He whirled around and let out an earsplitting, turbulent bark that made the men pause for a second. A second that he would use.

"Arizona, no!" Nemera yelped, turning around just in time to see her dog leap onto the shoulders of the man holding the gun, his fangs shimmering, and she covered her eyes with her arm. She heard him growl again and looked up to see him standing between the two other men, neck fur bristling in preparation to face them. She refused to look at the man lying on the ground.


	2. Chapter 2

Arizona grunted his victory and glared at the other two men until they turned around and fled, leaving their wounded companion on the ground. He lifted up his tail proudly and stalked towards the man on the ground. Digging his teeth into the collar of his shirt, he dragged him into one of the bushes. He knew that Nemera and he were running, and if anyone found an unconscious man, it wouldn't be good for them. Certain that no one would find him there, Arizona turned and looked for Nemera, who had disappeared from his sight.

Nemera wasn't stopping. She wasn't going to let those men get her. She wasn't going to go back to her house. She wasn't going to get killed. Her feet carried her further and further away from the place that the men had started shooting at her. She was nearly out of the park, nearly out of the neighborhood in fact. She couldn't go back for Arizona. Not now. Not when those men could. . . .might be following her.

She noticed that the gunshots had ceased, and turned around at the edge of the park, straining her eyes against the night. Her dog wasn't in sight. She was about to turn and go back for him when one of the bushes next to her rustled and she took off again in a flash, out of the park, fearful that the men had come back. Back at the bush, a crow landed on the ground and cocked his head, beady eyes glittering. He looked around for a second before taking off into the air, crowing loudly, an uncanny _CR-aw_ noise.

_It's just a crow,_ Nemera told herself. _Just a crow. Not those men. A crow._ She doubted her own thoughts and sprinted faster, moving into the next neighborhood. The crow sounded again. _CR-aw, CR-aw!_ Nemera blinked once, heart racing. Why was she so nervous about a crow? Then she realized why. Crows were carrions, they ate dead things. Did it think that she was going to _die_?

"Shoo," she growled at it. It continued to circle above her. "Get away, go on!"

Arizona shot forward like a bullet released from a gun at the sound of crowing, through fields and over any obstacle in his way. He knew what crowing meant. Every dog knew what it meant. He snarled as a rabbit tried to pass in front of him, baring his teeth and scaring it back into the night. He was almost to the end of the park. He had to keep up with that crow. He couldn't lose it.

The alley was cold and dark. Nemera huddled in the back corner and pulled her sweater tighter around herself, pulling up the hood and draping it over her head. She had begun to feel the first drops of rain and hugged herself tighter, preparing for the worst. She was upset, but not because she'd almost gotten killed. No, because she left her dog behind. Her one true friend and she didn't wait for him. Now, as she cowered in the alley, she realized that she would rather have died going back for him then leaving him behind, and she should have. She regretted repaying his loyalty like this. She could go back to the park to look for him but she knew that he wouldn't be there by the time she got back there. He would be gone. But that wasn't the only reason that she wouldn't go back. The truth was that she was a coward, and she knew it. Here she was, huddling in the back of a dark alley instead of turning around and finding her German shepherd. But didn't she have a right to be scared? If she hadn't had a huge fear of guns, then she would have gone back, no doubt about it. But she was.

When she was only four years old, she had been threatened with a gun. The person holding it demanded her parents to pay him money or else he'd shoot. Nemera knew that if there weren't spectators around, she would have been dead. In fact, she almost was. Her parents nearly refused, but catching a look on their 'audience's' faces, they decided to accept, so they would lose any respect that they already had.

Four years later, her father dragged her and her family out to a shooting range and after an unfortunate accident; she was shot in the shoulder. Luckily for her, an ambulance was already there for reasons she still, to this day, does not know and she was dragged off to the nearest hospital. She still had a scar from it.

Nemera knew that she was very lucky. If she'd been just around her family when she was four, a trigger would have been pulled and she would have been shot it in the head. If an ambulance had not already been at the shooting range and the driver not seeing what had happened, her parents would have refused to take her to the hospital, and she would have died then and there. And that night, when those men had tried to kill her, if Arizona had not come with her, she would not be there in that alley, regretting leaving her dog. She still wondered if the men had followed her.

She took out a small piece of bread and nibbled on the end of it for a couple of seconds. She felt hungry, but eating the bread seemed wrong at the moment, so she wrapped it back up and put it into her bag. She fingered around her bag for a few seconds before finding exactly what she was looking for. She had an army knife for only a couple of years, but she had an area set up on the side of her house where she practice fighting with it, stabbing stuffed dummies that she'd made and teaching herself how to fight with it. She was far from the best at her game, but she would be able to defend herself if she could evade gunshots long enough. She didn't want to kill but she would have to defend herself with it if it came down to it.

Arizona shook the water off of his pelt and lifted his nose up to the sky, breathing deeply. It was easy for him to track something if it travelled on the ground, but tracking something that flies was much more difficult. But there had to be a way. Nothing was impossible. Not for him.


	3. Chapter 3

Nemera looked at her reflection in one of the puddles that had begun to form on the ground. Her layered hair was very long, passing her waist by a couple inches. Glancing back at her dagger, she knew that she'd have to cut it. After years of growing it out, she'd have to cut it. She shook her head slightly. She'd have to cut it, but not now. She slid the dagger's blade back in and put it back in her bag.

Pushing herself to her feet, Nemera walked slowly and timidly out of the alley, looking warily to both sides as she stepped. She still had to make it to the airport by sunrise. Was it possible to make it there before her plane took off on foot? She couldn't run the whole way to the airport. She didn't have enough endurance for that. Remembering when she had tried out for basketball, not knowing how to play the sport, she would have smiled if not under these circumstances. She had been out of shape when she'd tried out and she had never had really good endurance. She'd found that out pretty quick.

When her next thought came to her, she could have slapped herself in the head for not thinking of it earlier. Why couldn't she just take a bus to the airport? They were always running! She looked around, trying to identify where exactly she was and where the nearest bus stop would be. There had to be one about a block away from where she was. She looked to where she'd run into the alley from, hoping to see a flash of golden brown fur running her way to stand at her side. She shook her head and looked down at the ground, feeling a tear slide down her face before turning and walking quickly to the next block.

The trees casted shadows blacker even than the night air around it. No moon stood out in the sky. No colossal glowing orb to radiate luminosity upon the shadowed Earth below. The tranquility was spine-chilling, the air too still like walking through a long forgotten ghost town, a deep-rooted chapter of its own history book. The solitary noise was the soft filter of rain drumming the pavement in rhythmic beats, playing a melody for a soft lullaby.

Water droplets sprayed Nemera as her foot stepped into a large puddle on the sidewalk. She could see the bus stop now not too far in front of her. If luck was on her side a bus would come very soon. As she reached the bench behind the stop, she pulled out some of the money from her bag, brushed some water off the seat, and sat down, watching the street warily. A dark movement made her turn her gaze towards the sky where the crow still wavered. It inhaled deeply before crowing loudly, flapping its wings more urgently and circling her faster yet. Nemera shook slightly, wondering why the crow was still following her. What could it want? She didn't have anything to give it. Why would it follow her all this way from the park? She glared at it, just as Arizona had done back in the park when it had landed on the grass and peered up at her, but it didn't back away like it had done before. It just continued its song in its husky voice.

Headlights in the distance made Nemera jump to her feet, money still in the palm of her hand and walk up to the edge of the sidewalk. The bus rolled to a stop next to her and the doors opened wide. The driver looked at her squarely as she walked up the steps and handed him the cash.

"A little late for a woman like you to be out, don't you think?" the driver asked, pocketing the money. Nemera shrugged.

"Not really," she said. "I like being out at night. It's so peaceful. Besides, I have flight to catch." The driver nodded.

"Ah, that explains it. Well, I'll get you there in no time. Don't worry about missing your flight." Nemera smiled slightly and nodded. Looking at the inside of the bus, she noted that it was almost empty. Only three or four people occupied the entire bus. She didn't put her backpack in the section for luggage, rather walked to the very back of the bus and took a seat near a window, placing her bag on her lap. She heard the engine of the bus and felt movement as it drove forward and leaned her head against the window and closed her eyes.

"_I bet that Twilight can beat your horse!" Nemera rolled her eyes._

"_You've got to be kidding me," she said, flipping her hair out of her face. "No one can defeat Dawn. He's never come in below fourth place in a race."_

"_How many times has he come in first?" Nemera's older sister mocked, patting her black stallion's shoulder. Nemera stroked her chestnut stallion's face._

"_More times than Twilight, that's for sure!" Her sister snorted._

"_Then prove it. Race me. Race Twilight and we'll see who the victor is." Nemera's eyes lit up._

"_Sure thing, Pandra, and we will not lose." Pandra mounted Twilight._

"_We'll see," she grunted and steered Twilight in the direction of their ranch's race track. Nemera beamed at the sign of competition and jumped on Dawn who nickered and quickly pranced after them, head held high. _

_After some preparing, they were inside the gates and ready to race. Nemera patted Dawn's neck and told what a good boy he was and how fast he was, that he was the king of the wind, that he could outrun the flying eagle. Dawn seemed to understand, for he neighed and pawed the ground, ready to run. Nemera's first younger sister Felina stood outside the gates to open them when they were ready._

"_On your mark!" she yelled. Nemera tightened her grip on the reigns._

"_Get set!" She adjusted herself in the saddle and looked at the track ahead. They were ready._

"_Go!" The gates flung open and the horses took off in a flash, the hoof beats louder than even the most severe thunder during a storm. Nemera could feel Dawn's powerful body lurching forward underneath her, his long stride gaining ground on the black stallion. His brown mane and tail blew in the wind and Nemera nudged him forward with her legs and he overcame Twilight in one bound. They were almost to the end of the track. They would win._

_Nemera heard Twilight let out a loud whistle and his steps moving quicker. Out of the corner of her eye she could see her sister urging her horse forward and she grimaced. But this wasn't as fast as Dawn could go. She nudged him forward again with both her legs and her voice. Dawn stretched out as far as he could and doubled his speed. They had to beat Twilight._

_They crossed the finish line so rapidly that neither one of them knew who had finished first. After trotting and walking a few laps to cool the horses down, Nemera and Pandra asked Felina to see if the track camera had taken a picture of the finish so they could see who the winner was. When she came back she told them that she was sorry and that she had forgotten to turn the camera on before the race. Nemera just smiled and thanked her for helping at all with the race, knowing that her other younger sister, Brooke, would have declined in a second. Pandra believed that she had won, but Nemera knew that she hadn't. After all, how could Twilight beat Dawn of the Desert, the King of the Wind?_

* * *

"_We need to give each other nicknames." Felina looked at her sisters, blinking her strange gold-orange eyes. Nemera smiled._

"_Okay," said Brooke, brushing her hair back. "But I don't want to have something silly." Felina rolled her eyes._

"_I'll be 'Flame Dancer'," Pandra said. Nemera chuckled._

"_But that's _longer _than your actual name! Aren't nicknames usually shorter?" she teased. Pandra shrugged._

"_Does it matter?" Nemera rolled her eyes and looked at her younger sister. Nicknames were common. She wanted to do something different, something that no one usually thinks of or does. She smiled as an idea came to her and grabbed a few sheets of paper._

"_What if," she said, "instead of nicknames, we give each other signs or symbols?" _

"_Symbols?" asked Brooke. "Like what?" Nemera seized a pencil and drew a flame, shading in the heart of it but leaving a border before the outline of it. Underneath the picture, she labeled it 'Pandra' and pushed it towards her older sister._

"_You said that you wanted to be Flame Dancer," she said. Pandra nodded._

"_I like it," she murmured. Nemera smiled and drew different lines, blowing in the same direction to represent wind and labeled it 'Felina' and gave it to her first younger sister. Felina beamed and Nemera got to work on the next one. She drew a lightning bolt, much like the fire shading wise and wrote 'Brooke' under the picture. Brooke shrugged and pocketed the paper._

"_It'll do," she grunted. That night, Nemera got to work on drawing signs for her family. For herself, a water droplet, shaded like the fire and lightning. For Arizona, a phoenix rising from tongues of flame lapping at its wings. Dawn was the afternoon sun while his son, Spyro was a spiral. She scribbled an eighth note with wind blowing through it, writing her dun thoroughbred's name, Haunting Melody, under it. Malie, her Fresian, and Jousting in the Clouds, her Arabian, were much easier to do. A cloud for Cloud and a Hawaiian flower for Malie. _

She felt the bus stop again but didn't look up, knowing that it was probably just another stop. They couldn't be at the airport yet . . .

_Nemera sat on her bed in her room, reading her favorite book for the thirtieth time, trying to ignore her mom who was yelling at someone on the phone. She was enjoying her peace now while she still could, knowing that her mom would take out her anger on her when she hung up. She always did. _

_So when Nemera heard her door swing open noisily, she wasn't surprised to see her mother standing there, hands on her hips and lecturing her about just about anything and everything that she did. From her love of reading to hanging out with friends, it didn't sound like she was about to stop soon._

"_And," her mother went on, "seeing you, surrounded by those three friends of yours, laughing and giggling having fun, it makes me want to _puke_! And what is wrong with you? You're the dirty one, and the one with a nose in a book twenty four seven! You're the one who _enjoys _getting her hands dirty! Why couldn't you be like your sisters? What is _wrong _with you?" Nemera gently put her book down and shrugged and her mom bristled. "_What_?" _

"_I don't know," she whispered. "Nothing." Her mother lunged forward and slapped her across her face. She was prepared for it but it still stung and left a red mark on her cheek . . . _

"Miss? Miss, I believe this is your stop." Nemera opened her eyes and leapt to her feet, slinging her backpack back on and walking to the front of the bus speedily.

"Sorry, I kind of dosed," she apologized. The driver laughed.

"No need to apologize, Miss, it's late!" he laughed. Nemera smiled and thanked him before jumping off of the bus and facing the airport. She was about to take a step forward when she heard the same crow calling madly above her, followed by deep barking and the sound of paws running on pavement. She looked over just in time to see a large dog race around the corner and towards her, the light bouncing off of his golden brown and black fur.

Nemera's breath caught in her throat and she fell to her knees beside him as Arizona sat down loyally beside her, hugging him close to her and telling him how much she loved him, how good of a boy he was. Arizona licked her ear and thumped his tail on the ground, eyes warm and Nemera kissed his head, tears beginning to roll down her face.

"I love you," she whispered and Arizona licked her again. "I love you so much." He wagged his tail and pushed her to her feet, nudging her backpack. She smiled and took out two things: sunglasses and turquoise cape like shirt for a dog reading 'Seeing Eye Dog' on it. She strapped the shirt on Arizona and clipped a leash on him, then put her sunglasses on and their act began. Arizona pretended to lead Nemera into the airport, just like they had practiced and over to the security line. They were able to get through pretty quickly since she only had one bag and it was so early in the morning. Plus, people were nicer to you if you were blind.

Arizona walked Nemera over to an empty seat to wait for their flight. She sat down and fingered through her bag aimlessly. It was going to be a very long plane ride to Venice and she couldn't read because she had to pretend that she was blind so that Arizona could stay with her. Maybe she'd just sleep? Order a few Diet Cokes? Relax? Perhaps she'd brought her CD player so she could listen to music and the audio versions of her favorite books? She fingered through her backpack. Oh, thank goodness!

She didn't know how long she and her dog had been waiting there but it could have been well over an hour. Nemera had begun to listen to the audio of her favorite book, petting Arizona the whole time who'd decided to lay down at her feet, though always alert. She had also decided to keep her eyes shut while she was sitting down, so she really had to feel around for things to make her blindness look more realistic. Over the noise of her headphones, she heard the announcement that they would start boarding the plane soon and to please get in line.

"Arizona," she said and Arizona got to his paws and led her to line A. She put the CD player back into her bag and closed her eyes to feel for her ticket. When she found it she pulled it out and walked forward in the line, trying to give it to the person at the door to board the plane. Through her sunglasses, she could see the woman smile and ask if she needed any help. Nemera shook her head.

"No thank you. I have a good dog and some good friends of mine will pick me up at the airport," she said. The woman smiled again.

"Well, okay, if you're sure," she said and asked for the next person's ticket. Arizona lead her through the short tunnel to the entrance of the plane. One of the men employees helped her on and led her to the first seats in the cabin of the plane that he said was made especially for people like her. The area looked almost exactly like a corner table in a restaurant, with the seats in a half circle, but this half circle had a corner in it. The seats appeared to be a bright red orange color, and in the middle which all the seats were rotated around was a silver table. One of the seats even had a doggie seat belt built into it for when the ride got a little bumpy.

Nemera gratefully took her seat and the employee helped strap Arizona in. She then took out her CD player and placed it on the table for after the plane took off when they were allowed to use electronic devices again. She'd been on planes enough to know the drill but she never quite got why if planes were supposedly the safest way to travel, the airport was called the terminal. She also didn't understand why people didn't make the entire plane out of the material that the indestructible black box used in the plane was made out of. She shrugged. Oh well.

She could spend the whole plane ride wondering questions like that. Why abbreviated is such a long word, why if con is the opposite of pro then is Congress the opposite of progress, where do the eraser bits go, what causes writer's block, and so on.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Yes! Finally, she's on her way to Venice, huh?!

I'm not finished with this chapter yet. I'll be writing more and uploading it soon! I hope you've enjoyed the story so far and I promise that there'll be more soon!


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